Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1887-07-22
WHEN ARE WE OLD7


What the Scientists Say on the subject.
Various Estimates and Statements.
According to the rules of the late Pro-
fessor Faraday the natural age of man
should be 100 years. The duration of life
both in man and animal he believed to
be measured by its time of growth, its
natural termination being five times that
age, or five removes from that point
Man being twenty years in growing, lives
five times twenty, or 100 years. He also
divides life into two equal growth
and decline; and this into infancy, youth,
virility and age; infancy extending to
the Goth year, youth to the 50th, because
it is the period the tissues become firm;
virility from so to 10, during which the
organism remains complete, and at rs
old age commences.
Another eminent scientist, DIR. Farr,
also says that the natural lifetime of man
is a century. which is the length of time
the body will live under the most favor
able conditions. DR.. Farr has divided life
as follows: Boyhood, 10 to Is years.
youth, Is to %; manhood % to So; ma
turity, 50 to 70; ripeness, 10 to So, and
old age, So and upward. If in the pres
be allowed to make my own estimate, it
would he as follows: A child continues
to be such until he is 20. which is the
law of the land; he is a young man from
20 to 40; middle aged man from 40 to
60; an elderly man from 60 to 50, and
an old man from 80 to 100
There seems to be considerable doubt
however, as to whether the age of 100 is
at all near the limit to which people may
and frequently do live. On this point Pro-
fessor j. r. Buchanan writes as follows
in The Journal of Man: 1.-THE attainable
limits of human longevity are generally
moderated by the medical profession and
by popular opinion. Instead of the
scriptural limit of three score and ten |
would estimate twice that amount, or
140 years, as the ideal age of healthy
longevity, when mankind shall have been
bred and trained with the same wise en-
ergy that has been expended on horses
and cattle"
The estimate of 140 years as a prac-
teal longevity for nobler generation is
sustained by the number of that age
fourteen, if l recollect rightly found in
Italy by a census under one of the later
Roman emperors, but for the race now
on the globe more applicable estimate
is that of the European scientist that the
normal longevity of an animal is five
times its period of growth. Mans
growth, however, is not limited to
twenty, and if we extend the period of
maturity to twenty-eight, the same rule
would give 140 as an age for the best
specimens of humanity, and as this has
been attained in some cases. its general
possibility in improved conditions is thus
demonstrated. Professor Buchanan then
goes on to give number of instances of
persons now living who have nearly at
taiped the age of 40
On this point statement recently pub
lished by NJ. Kohl an eminent Russian
scientist, will prove interesting if not
astounding. He says:
"Despite their enormous consumption
of the vile liquor called 'vodki' "a sort of
brandy, the Russians are stronger,
healthier and more long lived than any
other European nation. From the sturdy
old fellow Of century's standing down
to his great great grandchild in the era
die. brandy-or, in other words, vodki-
is the drink of all; and so entirely does il
seem to be adapted to the constitution OF
the people that in no country does SO lit.
tie drunkenness appear on the surface
and in none do the inhabitants live tc
such an enormous age with fewer at.
tendant infirmities. In the whole Rus
sian empire there die annually 10000
men above so years Of age-that is tC
say, third part of the yearly obituary
900 above 100 years of age: fifty to fifty
five who are more than 120 years old
twenty above 1870, and eight above 1876
while on the average two or three may
be annually reckoned to attain the age o.
from 40 to 155.
If we go back to scriptural times w,
find many instances of longevity, tn,
: truth of which we could not accept from
any other authority than the bible. TIL,
, late Mr.. Methuselah. for instance, liveC
to be 1000 years old, and many other
are mentioned as living 500 to 800 years
Compared with these old stagers, tn
famous Mr.. Parr, of London, was cut OF
in the flower of his youth, for he onl,
lived 1j5 years. He might. however
have continued to live many years longer
in his rustic health and happiness, had h
not been taken to the court of Kin
Charles, where the highly seasoned dishes
combined with his own gluttony, 500
killed him, knowledge.